1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a document processing system configured to execute prepress and press processing by using a printer in combination with a plurality of nearline finishers.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a company engaged in the commercial printing business receives an order of a print product (a magazine, a newspaper, a leaflet, an advertisement, or a photogravure) from a third party (a customer or a client), the company produces the print product desired by the client, delivers the final print product to the client, and receives the corresponding fee from the client. Meanwhile, in the commercial printing industry, a large-size printing apparatus, such as an offset type printing machine, is still used as the mainstream.
Under such circumstances, in the commercial printing industry, various processing and operations are executed before acquiring a final print product. More specifically, processing and operations, such as inputting a document, providing a design and a layout, presenting a comprehensive layout (presenting an output by a printer), proofreading (correcting the layout and adjusting color), proof printing, preparing a block copy, printing, post processing, and shipment.
When a printing machine as described above is used, it is always necessary to prepare a block copy. In this regard, it is difficult and disadvantageous in terms of costs to correct or modify a completely prepared block copy because a thorough proofreading including verification of the layout and the color is essentially required in this case.
As described above, in the commercial printing industry, it is necessary to use a large-size apparatus. In addition, it takes sufficiently long time to completely produce a print product desired by a client. Furthermore, professional knowledge is required to execute the above-described processing and operations. In other words, experience and know-how of a craftsman or a skilled labor is required. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-110535 discusses a method for inputting document data or parts data which constitutes a portion of the document, determining the design and the layout, and executing proof printing.
Meanwhile, with the recent increase in a processing speed and an image quality of an electrophotographic type or inkjet type printing apparatus, a print on demand (POD) printing method has become widely used competing with the commercial printing industry using the above-described method. The POD is intended to execute printing without using a large-size apparatus or a complicated system and to deliver a print product in short delivery time by dividing a job executed by a printing apparatus into relatively small lots.
In particular, the POD maximally utilizes a digital image forming apparatus, such as a digital copying machine or a digital multifunction peripheral (MFP), instead of using the above-described large-size printing apparatus or a highly exclusive printing method. Thus, the POD implements digital printing using electronic data. The POD market that utilizes the POD method has been established and become widespread.
In the above-described POD market, digital processing is more often used than in the conventional commercial printing industry, and management and control utilizing a computer has become prevalent. Thus, scale and a technological level of the computerized POD market has increased and improved to approach those of the conventional printing industry.
Under such circumstances, services such as Print For Pay (PFP) service and Centralized Reproduction Department (CRD) service have been provided in the POD market. Here, the PFP printing service is a service provided to a general customer by a copy shop, a print shop, or a printing company, while the CRD service is a service exclusively provided within a corporation.
Recently, in the POD market, various standards have been developed by different industry organizations in order to implement a centralized support of business operations and an efficient business management. For example, the International Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress Organization (CIP4) has set forth the Job Definition Format (JDF) standard. The CIP4 is a cooperative organization aimed at integrating the operation and processing of prepress, press, and postpress.
The JDF has made it easy to centrally manage and automatically execute the print processing beginning from an input of a document by a client to the processing such as prepress, press, and postpress. For example, when a print job is brought into a printer such as a print shop, the print job is managed by a printing system. An operator of the printing system determines what processing is to be executed on the print job in each processing step, such as raster image processor (RIP) processing for generating image data to be printed, print processing for printing an image on a sheet, or binding processing for cutting and binding the printed sheets.
Furthermore, the operator defines content of each processing step by the JDF and transmits the defined processing content to each apparatus that executes processing assigned thereto. After receiving the processing content, each apparatus executes the processing according to the received processing content. Thus, a series of print processing can be centrally managed.
In post-processing for printed sheets, a post-processing apparatus named a finisher, such as a paper folding machine, and a cutting machine, is used. There are three types of such post-processing apparatuses.
One type is a finisher which is directly connected to the printing apparatus. The printed sheets are automatically conveyed into the finisher. The finisher of this type is called an “inline finisher.” Another type is a finisher that is not directly connected to the printing apparatus but connected via a network. The finisher of this type is called a “nearline finisher”. A nearline finisher requires the operator to convey printed sheets thereto because the printed sheets are not automatically conveyed from the printing apparatus. A yet another type is an “offline finisher” that is not connected to the printing apparatus directly or via the network. Accordingly, the offline finisher itself cannot transmit or receive information to or from the printing apparatus.
In addition to the above-described conventional method, other conventional methods have been discussed by Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2005-101883 and 2001-142667.
As described above, the JDF, as an industry standard, has made it easy to centrally manage and automatically execute the processing beginning from the input of a document by a client to the processing such as prepress, press, and postpress. However, although the JDF is an industry standard format, the JDF may include a setting attribute expanded uniquely by each vendor.
Therefore, if a printing system includes devices of different vendors, it is difficult to totally control all processing by the JDF due to difference in interfaces among vendors. For example, the vendor of a “prepress application” for executing imposition and print setting on a printer during prepress and press processing, and the vendor of a “nearline finisher” which is not connected to the printing apparatus may be different.
In this case, the prepress application may not have detailed information about the interface of the “nearline finisher”. Therefore, it is difficult for the prepress application to issue a correct JDF for giving an instruction to the “nearline finisher”. Accordingly, an additional operation may be required to execute printing by using a prepress application and a finisher of different vendors.
More specifically, it is necessary for the operator to issue an appropriate JDF to each of the prepress application and the finisher while reading an operation manual to overcome the difference between the interfaces, which requires great care. Further, the above-described problem prevents the total automation of the processing from the prepress to the press by the JDF.